In the seventh round of the NHL Draft, the Winnipeg Jets selected the Shreveport Mudbugs defenseman with the 211th overall selection.

The 6-foot-5, 209-pound Alaska native captured Defenseman of the Year honors in the North American Hockey League for the 2016-17 season. He led all blue-liners with 52 points (12 goals, 40 assists).

Evingson is committed to play college hockey at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell.

The Jets own Evingson's rights throughout his college career. The 19-year-old will head to Winnipeg's rookie camp Sunday before he heads to school the next week.

"This was on my radar," Evingson told The Times. "I was talking to (Winnipeg) a good bit during the season, but it was pretty cool to see my name up there.''

Evingson watched the draft at home.

"I was waiting to see their final pick," he said. "Then my phone rang, so that's when I kind of knew."

Mudbugs head coach Karlis Zirnis said Evingson's big day is proof of what the franchise preached before its inaugural NAHL season.

"First of all, congratulations to Croix -- he put a lot of hard work in," Zirnis told The Times from Latvia. "I'm not sure people believed us, but we said we would cultivate NHL talent and we'd have guys selected in the draft."

The Mudbugs recently completed their first season in the NAHL, a Tier-II junior league. Evingson is the first player in the history of the franchise to be drafted after playing in Shreveport.